Best Photo: Gorilla Porn

Woooohooooooo! What a day and a long one.  My group of trackers hiked the longest of all the groups in the forest.  Most groups found their family within two hours and were back at their hotels by 1pm. We started at 8:30am and did not find the gorillas until 2:30pm.  We did not get back from the forest until 5:30pm and then we had our ceremony where the rangers gave us certificates for hiking. By the time I got to my hotel it was 6:45 and I raced for a shower.  I gave the hotel staff my clothes and hiking boots for cleaning.  I will take them wet if necessary tomorrow morning.  Everything was caked in mud and I did not want to travel with filthy clothes.

Now to the meat of the matter: this is the most strenuous undertaking I have ever engaged in and that includes the 3-day breast cancer walk of 20 miles per day, the life guard course, and the NY Bar.  I was mostly mentally challenging.  Physically, I was in good shape for the hike – the swimming and water boot camp did build my lung capacity so the hiking and the altitude was not the problem.  My damn fear of heights and jagged rocks almost paralyzed me with fear on the way down.  Going uphill was fine but when it was time to take a downward slope I was terrified. My heart was racing and my breathing started to get shallow.  The guides wanted me in the front, which only made it worse because I could feel everyone’s frustration at my back.  My slow pace was a problem.  When we hit a spot that was a little flat, I insisted that everyone go ahead of me because I was going to go at the pace of an inch-worm and I was not going to speed up.  I was practically about to start hyperventilating and I wanted the away from me.  Finally they passed me, and I continued my snail’s pace down.  My porter, Mwengye (who was 17 yrs old), held my hand and helped me down the steep drops.  Let me just say the terrain is a BITCH – there is no other way to describe it! It is steep and slippery and muddy and vine covered and rocky and deep holes from elephant footprints, and more muddy, and swampy and wet and ant-filled and worm-filled and just plain scary at times because I would look down and the downward slope looked like a straight rocky, slippery slide to god knows what.  I had to keep telling myself to only look where I needed to place my foot and to stop looking to see where we were headed.  Ok that is the climb down.

The climb up to the gorillas took us from 8:30am-2:30pm.  We just kept going up and up, and then down and then up again.  We took breaks and sipped water, had a snack, and some chuckles. Around 12:30pm, everyone started getting nervous that we would not get to see the gorillas because we kept hearing from the trackers that the gorilla family we were assigned to track, the Mubare family, were constantly moving. Our guides told us to sit and wait because we were chasing the gorillas in one direction, but the gorillas switched course and were headed in our general vicinity.  Around 12:45 they said the gorillas were about 45 minutes away.  So we got up and started our slippery climb at 1:45pm we stopped again and were told the gorillas shifted and were 20 minutes ahead us.  Then our guide, whose name is Damien, started hacking though thick vines with his machete and making a path for us to follow.  We had to traipse through the fallen vines which were now masking the holes and rocks underneath so the walking was quite treacherous and some people who were trying to move to quickly started slipping and falling.  After another hour, it was 2:30 and we found them.

They were deep within this thick vine-filled bushy area.  We finally met the trackers who found them: Alfred and Mike.  We all thanked them profusely and our porters for helping us.  The porters stayed with our stuff and or walking sticks as we trudged another 10 minutes to view them.

When we got to the spot, it was pure magic.  Suddenly nothing else mattered but to sit in their majestic presence. The guides and trackers chopped the vines out of the way so we could get pictures.  We first saw a female and a young black back male lying next to each other and holding hands.  The female was called Angel.  Then the male flipped onto his back and opened his legs showing his twig and berries proudly.  Then Angel flopped on her back and spread her legs showing her honey pot.  Within minutes it was gorilla porn.  The black back is not supposed to mate with the females in the group so this was taboo love.  Then the silver back (the leader of the group) charged and the black back ran off.  The silver back then had his way with Angel.  When he finished seconds later, he turned to leave right in our direction.  The guides said for everyone to move back, but I ended up being kind of stuck in his path because I was seated on the ground everyone was huddled behind me.  He was coming towards me, so I looked down in a submissive way and just rolled to the side.  He passed right by me.  It was thrilling.  I have great shots of them feeding, sexing it up and just relaxing in the shade.  A woman I met, Luth from Spain, has the photo of the silver back walking by me.   I have her email and will write to get a copy.  IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we got back to headquarters, the trackers cheered for us because we had tracked the longest of everyone to see the gorillas.  They gave each of us a certificate for tracking and we took a group photo. I gave my porter and the trackers generous tips for their help.  Some of my group were cheap, especially a guy and his wife from Dallas who gave their porters $2.00 each.  I told him it was too little and he said it was fair compared to the wages in Uganda.  I replied, “You are not from Uganda and you do not make a Ugandan salary.  It’s horrible to give them $1.00 after they toted his 10lb camera bag and his wife’s 10lb backpack up and down a mountain for 9 hrs.  He just looked at me. What a cheap bastard!

This was a fantastic day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow I head to Rwanda to track the gorillas and golden monkeys there. Tonight I will rest and revel in my good fortune.

In the morning at 8am I went with Vian, the groundskeeper to plant my tree.  It was a small sapling wrapped in dried banana leaves. My sapling will grow into a large mahogany tree.  I look forward to updates on my tree and when it is mature enough, my name plaque will be placed on it in memory of my time there.  Mahogany Springs is a lovely hotel.  If you decide to go trekking for gorillas in Bwindi, please check on my tree.